Sardinia

Seven thousand Bronze Age towers, a language that predates Italian, and the most misread coastline in the Mediterranean

Most people who visit Sardinia come for the water. This is understandable – the turquoise quality of the sea along the Costa Smeralda in calm conditions genuinely looks like a screen saver, and Cala Goloritzé on the eastern Ogliastra coast, accessible only by boat or a two-hour hike down from the plateau, is among the most beautiful beaches in Europe. The water is the draw. But if that’s all you see, you’ve missed most of what makes Sardinia exceptional.

The Sardinian language is not a dialect of Italian. It is a separate Romance language with roots closer to Vulgar Latin than anything spoken on the mainland, and it is actively spoken, especially in the interior. The Nuragic civilisation built over 7,000 stone towers on the island between roughly 1900 and 730 BCE – some estimates put the original number at 30,000. These corbelled circular towers, constructed without mortar and contemporary with Bronze Age Mycenae, exist nowhere else on earth. Sardinia has more prehistoric monuments per square kilometre than almost anywhere in the world, and most visitors drive through the interior without stopping because they are heading to the beach.

The Coast: Where to Go and Where to Skip

The Costa Smeralda around Porto Cervo was developed in the 1960s by the Aga Khan as a luxury resort. The beaches – Liscia Ruja, Capriccioli, Grande Pevero – are extraordinary. If serious money is your register, this is the place. If it is not, the south-west coast around Chia and Tuerredda and the Ogliastra coast in the east offer beaches of equivalent beauty with significantly more reasonable prices.

Cala Goloritzé near Baunei on the Ogliastra coast requires effort: boat from Baunei harbour, or a steep two-hour descent on foot from the plateau above. The effort keeps the numbers manageable and the beach itself – a natural limestone arch, transparent water, white pebbles – justifies the investment. This is the kind of place that photographs consistently better than most visitors expect, and that photographs worse than the actual experience.

The Nuraghe

Su Nuraxi at Barumini is the most complex Nuragic site and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The central tower is surrounded by a multi-phase defensive complex and the remains of a village, all of it built in stone without mortar using a corbelling technique that creates domed chambers inside the towers. Guided tours run in English and Italian. Most visitors to Sardinia never come here because the coast is more accessible, which means you will often have the site to yourself. The Nuragic civilisation disappeared around 500 BCE, absorbed gradually into Phoenician, Carthaginian, and then Roman spheres of influence; why they built thousands of towers over a thousand years of continuous construction is still genuinely debated by archaeologists.

The Interior

The Barbagia region centred on Nuoro is the culturally intact heart of the island. The villages here maintained considerable isolation through the medieval period and developed costume traditions and festival cultures that survive in active use. The Autunno in Barbagia festival (October through November) opens these villages to visitors with traditional costumes, food demonstrations, and craft shows – timing a trip around it is worth doing. The Supramonte plateau above Orgosolo is flat limestone karst with dramatic gorges dropping to the valley below. Su Gorropu gorge is three hours’ walk from the nearest road and is considered the deepest canyon in Europe by some measures; bring a guide, as the terrain is genuinely disorienting.

Food and Wine

Bottarga – cured grey mullet roe, grated over pasta or eaten in shavings – is the specific flavour of Sardinia and tastes like the sea concentrated. Porceddu is suckling pig roasted over myrtle wood; the myrtle smoke imparts a specific flavour the standard pork roast can’t replicate. Culurgiones are pasta parcels filled with potato, pecorino, and mint, sealed with a plaited edge that is a traditional skill specific to the Ogliastra area. Each of these three dishes makes the case for the island’s cooking better than any general description.

Cannonau, the primary red wine grape, is genetically the same as Grenache but produces wines with more tannin and earthiness. The Jerzu area in Ogliastra and the Mandrolisai zone in the central mountains are the best appellations. Vernaccia di Oristano is amber-coloured, oxidatively aged, and tastes like a cross between dry sherry and something completely its own. It is not immediately approachable and it is genuinely worth trying.

Getting There

Cagliari airport serves the south and interior; Olbia serves the north and the Costa Smeralda. Overnight ferries from Genoa, Civitavecchia (Rome), and Livorno are the comfortable way to bring a car, and a car is almost essential for anything beyond the main coastal resorts. The mountain roads in the interior are narrow and slow and consistently more rewarding than the coast roads.